Another resource: JCPS new curriculum documents (K-12)

I’m breathing a huge sigh of relief as an excellent cohort of teachers and I wrapped up a year-long project to lay the groundwork for something that has not existed in entirety before: an elementary curriculum map for the Jefferson County (KY) Public Schools.

If you’ve been looking at resources online for any length of time you know that JCPS has developed and is developing one of the most proficiency-focused, communicative, research-based curricula out there. But the elementary program has been a different story. The project to develop a district-wide map has started and stopped and fizzled several times over the years, but it’s finally happened and will continue happening.

Where? Where?!

If you’ve been interested in JCPS’s projects for any length of time you know it’s been a bear to get access to them. Password protected. Blocked. Unblocked – for a matter of hours. Someone in some workshop has them on a USB drive. The district was protective even as the district specialist wanted them public. You may find all the new documents online here. If you can’t – best news ever for you – they have moved to a public Google Drive folder here.

Watch for updates as the great teachers at JCPS continue working on powerful assessments, resources, and lesson plans.

A few notes about the elementary curriculum:

JCPS categorizes elementary grades beginning with P1 as kindergarten, P2 as 1st grade, and so on. At 4th grade the teachers stop using the P# reference.

We tried to address the problems that plague elementary programs – kids transferring in and out, the program getting hijacked by pull-outs and testing prep, too many students per teacher, not enough time per week. So we divided the program into two levels, with the levels layered. Then we developed five six-week units for the last six-week period to be used as review and assessment as the state testing schedule allows. So the first level has the same five units every year for kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, but every year the vocabulary and functions in that theme get deeper. There’s a lot of recycling and then moving deeper. Same with third, fourth, and fifth grades- the same theme for the unit every year with a lot of recycling and moving deeper.

We developed the program as if every teacher had the recommended minimum 90 minutes per week with students, which no one in the JCPS system does yet, so we actually recommend that teachers with less time throw out an entire unit instead of doing less per unit. If it were me I would skip unit 1 in Level 1 on the assumption that kids will develop the school vocabulary as the year goes on, and in Level 2 I would combine the All About Us and Hanging Out with my Friends units.

There are also many core content and connections built in.

As teachers develop units and find resources those will be updated too, with a goal to have a really good IPA for at least each semester of 3rd-5th soon.

The intercultural goals are something cool and innovative but will need some improvement so you can watch for that as well.

18 Comments

Thank you for sharing so much on this topic. It comes at a great time for me as I am working with 2 other colleagues to institute a standards based curriculum in our Spanish 1 and 2 next year. We have been inspired by and are big fans of the JCPS Skydirve documents and have referred to them often in our planning. I would very much love to see the new JCPS documents but it seems that one needs to have an access code to see them 🙁

Hi Beth, please keep checking. When I posted them I thought they were open to the public because just a few days ago, they were. The district supervisor wants them available to the public, I know, and Kara and Megan don’t know why they’re suddenly unavailable. Kara’s going to look into it. Hopefully we can get them public again soon!

I know this might be old news to all but I just found the link to the Google docs but I can’t open a thing. I can get to the SharePoint site but I wanted to see the more detailed organized Google drive docs but nothing happens once I am there and if I try to download the files won’t open. Thoughts?

Oh no! The only advice I have is for you to keep trying. Wait a minute to see if they appear, and then reload if they don’t. I know that sometimes they appear empty and if you give it a minute the files appear. I’m having no trouble loading the Drive folder now and it’s also giving me the option to download. I hope it works for you soon!

I came across your web site through MartinaBex.com. Thank you so much for making these materials available! I am a K-8 Spanish teacher who is making the transition to TPRS and comprehensible input. I had taught college Spanish about 20-25 years ago, spent my first year with the kids trying to “simplyfy” that old style. Very frustrating, as you can imagine… Then I started reading and communicating with a friend of mine (long story…) Anyway, I had a great year last year, my second year with them. I know they are ready to move on – they’ve done really well with the limited amount of materials. I wasn’t sure what to do, but thanks to your sharing of JCPS curriculum, I now can make a plan for fall! Thank you, thank you again, Sara-Elizabeth! Please let me know if I can ever return the favor!!

Fantastic! We worked so hard on them- I am going to love hearing how they are helping other programs as well! You should also join the Ñandú listserv for elementary language teachers; it’s a lot of help.

Wow, you’re right. Briefly they were all accessible and then the secondary documents were made by username access only. Now it seems you can’t access any of them. The world languages specialist at the district is working to get the restriction removed; she would really like them to be available to everyone. Stay tuned.

Is there any update on the access to these pages, or is there a username and password that can be shared?
We are hoping to use your materials as a model to build our own curriculum here in NH.
Thanks so much!

Does “Curriculum Frameworks” and “Curriculum Maps” work for you? I think you will find the most helpful information there. I hadn’t tried the Instructional Resources tab yet. The content there, if there is much (there isn’t for elementary, I know) would be things like powerpoints with pictures of people to describe, links to audio-lingua.eu or laits at UT for listening, etc.

I think you’ll find that the updates on the documents on Thomas’s OneDrive are in the two available sections on the Gheens website. I’m pretty sure the resources section just contains individual items the teachers use within the units like cloze activities and such. I hope what is available will still be of some help to you.

Does anyone have any updates on the Jefferson County Instructional Resources becoming available to the public again? I used them in 3rd grade and LOVED them – I’m moving to first grade next year, and am wanting to use their seed lessons – they’re incredible! I need access badly!!!